Rope Walk/LASSCO Part One, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Someone in London had recently recommended Maltby Street

to the Paradis family.  Some Borough Market renegades are supposed to have decamped here

 after an argy-bargy over gentrification, and raised rents......

On Saturdays, it is apparently CHOCK-A-BLOCK (see Maltby Street link above)

but on a week day, its less than weekday-ordinary bleeding of food, funk, and fun

lures, intrigues and beguiles. (I so need that rainbow sign, do I not?)  LASSCO seem to have pioneered "the

Ropewalk" and "anchors" the various food vendors and service providers

who have washed up here.  I adored this cheery beach hut incongruously tucked into a railway arch.

Above which trains rattle in and out of London Bridge Station. (Your Tube stop close by.)

Note to Paradis selves:  Must return on a Saturday for fresh crab - one of London's surprising and great glories.  The Paradis family are always on the hunt for fresh whole crab which can be reasonably easily gotten in London - (with several hours to pick through it in) - since it is puzzlingly and disappointingly rare on Southern California restaurant plates.

Famous St. John, purveyors of nose-to-tail trad-English cuisine have an outpost here, with very casual seating

if you can keep your stomach and your mind concentrated on the food and less distracted by tantalizing LASSCO bits and bobs.

The appearance is that much of Ropewalk is LASSCO storage, workshops, small tradesmen,

who, in a very up-to-date sharing economy fashion, give their spaces over to bikers and bakers, and also tapas and cocktail makers - on weekends and at the meal-time hour.

The English do seem to have this cheery particular talent for making a mash up of salvage rakers

and barrow boys work so casually and beautifully together.

Give yourself a little time - if you wander down to Ropewalk.....because the wander inside LASSCO - (post to follow!) is not one to be rushed. 

If, like me, you like the old and the beautiful, the travel through time and space, the recycled and the refurbished, the twee set against the untidy.  The fragile, the fleeting, and the misunderstood.   Ropewalk is yes, another Passage Paradis, for those of our persuasion.

Thanks to Otli, Krista and Suzanne for their encouraging notes.  All of America seems to be throwing our toys out of the pram this month.  I don't mean to be funny about this.  It is dead serious.  I just hope that we all who want peace and reason and compassion, as Otli has reminded me, who must number far more than those who don't, will find a way to prevail.  Going shopping (contrary to post 9-11 exhortations in NYC) is not the answer, I don't believe.  But savoring the wabi-sabi, the beautiful, the honest, the purity of an act, the essence of a thing - and/or its maker, a moment - and sharing it with others - IS.  It's why I do what I do and I suspect I am not alone in the blog world.  In fact I know it.

I've come very late to the following particular discovery but what landed on my lap this past week - (though it was recommended to me six months ago) has helped to soothe and remind me and put things in perspective:  The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  I haven't finished it yet but if you don't know about it already, it's worth checking out.

Summer Stecca-a-Rama - Thanks to Sullivan Street Bakery

So how is everybody?  Staying cool?  It is about to get seriously hot here in L.A. and some of you may know we have some bad fires up North.  The good news is that the week started cool.  In fact, perfect weather for some Stecca-making.

So Sunday night, Mr. Paradis made a quick batch of dough which we let rise till about noon of the following day.  I managed to find time between laundry, gardening and bill paying to pull a couple of these little guys out onto some parchment paper.  THAT'S HOW EASY THIS RECIPE IS!

Plunked some olives and cherries tomatoes onto them, and a quick swish of olive oil.  The flecks are fresh thyme leaves.  Oh and a sprinkling of sea salt.  Then, INTO THE OVEN.

My little helper kept track of the15 minutes of baking at 500 degrees.

Here's where the recipe came from.  NYC's guru of gluten and dough,  Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery fame.

Somehow I think he must have let them rise a bit after putting them on the baking sheet - NOT in the recipe.  And he rolled the dough chunks into themselves like for a classic baguette (which these are the Italian version of).  I stretched them.  p.s., if your tomatoes are juicy like mine, the dough will sag a bit, too.

But I think they turned out pretty darn good!!!!

(Oh and don't forget to pit the olives before you put them on, says Mr. Paradis.)

Crispy, salty, chewy, light!!!  OMG, you will be happy you tried this at home.  Just as good as these ones from Proof, in L.A (which I posted about a couple years ago) at a fraction of the cost.  Don't be shy, bake them, show them, and share them with your friends!

HAPPY WEEKEND to you FOODIES out there!

(No, really, I mean ALL OF YOU!  xoxo)

Felice Beato - Japan in 1865

via the Guardian and the London Photograph Fair 2015 May 23 and 24, 2015.

portraits of Samurai and Courtesans of the Edo period (1865), Japan.

More about Felice Beato here.

I'm taking a writing class again and here is an excerpt by Sei Shonagon, a Japanese lady courtier of even longer ago (the 10th - 11th centuries!) from a reading assignment we had last week.  I think it's a perfect match to the photos here.  

And too funny really, because her list of things from the Pillow Book

could really have been made yesterday.

The lesson of that particular class was: What affects you about good writing?  It's universality.  How a good or great book can speak to every human and their experience.

And so.....from Sei Shonagon:

 Rare Things --- 

A son-in-law who's praised by his wife's father. Likewise, a wife who's loved by her mother-in-law. 

A pair of silver tweezers that can actually pull out hairs properly.

A retainer who doesn't speak ill of his master.

A person who is without a single quirk. Someone who's superior in both appearance and character, and who's remained utterly blameless throughout his long dealings with the world.

You never find an instance of two people living together who continue to be overawed by each other's excellence and always treat each other with scrupulous care and respect, so such a relationship is obviously a great rarity. 

Copying out a tale or a volume of poems without smearing any ink on the book you're copying from. If you're copying it from some beautiful bound book, you try to take immense care, but somehow you always manage to get ink on it.

Two women, let alone a man and a woman, who vow themselves to each other forever, and actually manage to remain on good terms to the end.” 

Hateful Things ---

One is just about to be told some interesting piece of news when a baby starts crying.

A flight of crows circle over with loud caws.

An admirer has come on a clandestine visit, but a dog catches sight of him and starts barking. One feels like killing the beast.

One has been foolish enough to invite a man to spend the night in an unsuitable place -- and then he starts snoring. 

One has gone to bed and is about to doze off when a mosquito appears, announcing himself in a reedy voice. One can actually feel the wind made by his wings, and, slight though it is, one finds it hateful in the extreme.

A carriage passes by with a nasty, creaking noise. Annoying to think that the passengers may not even be aware of this! If I am traveling in someone's carriage and I hear it creaking, I dislike not only the noise but the owner of the carriage.

A lover who is leaving at dawn announces that he has to find his fan and his paper. "I know I put them somewhere last night," he says. Since it is pitch-dark, he gropes about the room, bumping into the furniture and muttering, "Strange! Where can they be?" Finally he discovers the objects. He thrusts the paper into the breast of his robe with a great rustling sound; then he snaps open his fan and busily fans away with it. Only now is he ready to take his leave. What charmless behavior! "Hateful" is an understatement.

A good lover will behave as elegantly at dawn as at any other time. He drags himself out of bed with a look of dismay on his face. The lady urges him on: "Come, my friend, it's getting light. You don't want anyone to find you here." He gives a deep sigh, as if to say that the night has not been nearly long enough and that it is agony to leave. Once up, he does not instantly pull on his trousers. Instead, he comes close to the lady and whispers whatever was left unsaid during the night. Even when he is dressed, he still lingers, vaguely pretending to be fastening his sash.  Presently he raises the lattice, and the two lovers stand together by the side door while he tells her how he dreads the coming day, which will keep them apart; then he slips away. The lady watches him go, and this moment of parting will remain among her most charming memories. 

Indeed, one's attachment to a man depends largely on the elegance of his leave-taking. When he jumps out of bed, scurries about the room, tightly fastens his trouser-sash, rolls up the sleeves of his Court cloak, over-robe, or hunting costume, stuffs his belongings into the breast of his robe and then briskly secures the outer sash -- one really begins to hate him.

All these things could have been written by Colette don't you think? And if not Jerry Seinfeld, maybe Elaine Bennis!  Timeless, universal.

HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND!   I hope you don't encounter Hateful Things!

Elsa Mora - Impossibly Beautiful Papercuts

She's in L.A.

I should get a hold of her

I think she could teach me things I would love

to learn.

She does all sorts of things - illustration, photography

jewelry

multi-media sculptures, hand made books.

It's the paper cutting I love best.

It's the Magic Realism of:  Elsa Mora

How was your longest day?  Did you celebrate it?

Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia - Infatuation

A book that I found on a recent trip to London........

is full of treasures.

If I could, I'd move into one of these houses in a heartbeat.

Sadly, they are extremely rare these days.

What do I like most?  The lanterns?  The carvings?  The colors?

The sweet garden decor?

The perfect balance of light and heaviness?

The airiness?

The patterns?

I did say colors, didn't I?

The authors of this book won an award in 2005

for their previous book, Chinese Houses:  The Architectural Heritage of a Nation

I'm sure that book is just as gorgeous.

Find more about them both, click here.